It's back to Gannon

At the least it’s entertaining that Rove Gate comes all the way around to Judy Miller's fellow journalist and teammate Jeff Gannon. After reading Josh Marshall it becomes easier to understand why Gannon got so much preferential treatment. He could bring house down.

Krugman

If you read only one column a day, or in your life, read today's New York Times column by Paul Krugman.

The gang can't shoot straight

"Bush admin may be responsible for botching effort to thwart London bombing"

One of the great fake auras that cling to Cheney, Bush and the other right wing coup leaders is the myth of competence. This mass delusion is so powerful it withstands every fuck up from drunken stumbles to the disastrous Iraq war. If you are on the right and you scare the shit out of people, wear a suit, have a deep voice, a snarl and grab bag full of lies, people think you know what you’re doing.

It isn’t so. For the details on one fuck up that resulted in the London bombs go to Americablog.com and read the linked post.

These asses will do anything for a little political leverage.

update: Visit Juan Cole for more.

Where's Dick?

We’ve been wondering what Cheney’s role in Rove Gate was and found some of the questions are cleared up here. Questions, of course, that lead to more questions. Could it be that Cheney is the real target of the Fitzgerald investigation?

Cheney is the real power. Bush is an empty suit dancing on a short leash, allowed to shoot off his mouth, strut, bully and act out within the strict confines of a script written elsewhere. The viciousness of the Plame outing suggests both Cheney and Rove and my guess is that the junta is delighted that Rove is getting all the attention and Cheney, so far, is skating.

Check out the link here and above to Talk Left for a masterful assembling of information that points to Cheney’s involvement.

Pa opens a door

If you're considering elective surgery here's something to think about.

More than 11,600 patients contracted infections during hospital stays in Pennsylvania last year _ and nearly 1,800 of them died, according to a new report by a state agency that tracks health care trends.

Pennsylvania is one of at least a half-dozen states that require hospitals to report information on infections, and it is the first state to publicize its findings....

Since hospitals are not anxious to report this information unless required to do so and apparently the states are even less likely to release the information, we could use more requirements. It's the kind of information you like to have when picking a hospital.

Congratulations to Pennsylvania.

"The Big Lie About Valerie Plame"

Here's an informative article on Valerie Plame and the damage done to her.

The misinformation being spread in the media about the Plame affair is alarming and damaging to the longterm security interests of the United States. Republicans' talking points are trying to savage Joe Wilson and, by implication, his wife, Valerie Plame as liars. That is the truly big lie.

For starters, Valerie Plame was an undercover operations officer until outed in the press by Robert Novak. Novak's column was not an isolated attack. It was in fact part of a coordinated, orchestrated smear that we now know includes at least Karl Rove.

Valerie Plame was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA. ....

via Atrios

The script

Raw Story has posted a document with the Republican "talking points" on Rove/Plame.

Mostly they say it's a Democratic Party smear campaign.

Who cares what you think

Rove is not going anywhere.

Most likely they will throw out a few face covering lies for consumption by the faithful and then stonewall it to the end.

Remember: "who cares what you think?" That early incident clearly defined what their attitude toward us, the law, congress and any opposition and gave us a very accurate preview of what we were in for in the years to come.

They are gangsters and will respond only to force, not truth, reason, law, and especially not public opinion.